Eurovision Euphoria
- May 30th, 2012
- Posted by EUEditor
The glitzy-ditzy Eurovision show brightened up Baku for a week and delivered the prize to the favourite, the Swedish singer Loreen with Euphoria — a singer and song already cruising at No.1 through much of Europe.
That dance club tune, so dubbed by keen Azeri media, became close to an all-time favourite, with 372 points in the voting, beating into second place the “choir†of Russian grannies with 256. (It was the second-best ever competitive record, to the 2009 winner from Norway with 387).
The public voting in the Eurovision Song Contest once again produced a good element of regional block-voting, delivering a hefty representation from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and once again that was not enough to warp the whole balance or spoil the fun.
The government in Azerbaijan spared no efforts to clean up and tinsel-up the capital city. (They had some compensation as well; the home entry was fourth).
Baku was last spectacularly on the map during the grim, dark days of 1989-90, when the country was wrestling free of the Soviet Union, and getting into mortal combat with neighbouring Armenia.
In January 1990 a Soviet re-occupation of the port, using land and sea forces, saw skirmishing with 30 to 60 killed in single actions.
The human rights record of the regime that emerged was questioned again and again in the lead-up to the singing in 2012; but the lights were on, no guns drawn, for the moment, glamorous guests were in town; and as the song said – there was time for a little euphoria.
Play the performance:Â http://nine-to-five.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/aussies-euphoric-for-euphoria/
Reference
Trend, Baku, “European Broadcasting Union announces Eurovision-2012 contest voting resultsâ€, 27.5.12. http://en.trend.az/news/eurovision/2030874.html, (29.5.12).
Euronews, Lyon-Ecully, “Eurovision: a night of clear winners and sore losersâ€, 28.5.12. http://www.euronews.com/2012/05/28/eurovision-a-night-of-clear-winners-and-sore-losers/, (29.5.12).